


New Rules

by naaz



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood, Drabble, Kissing, M/M, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 00:46:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naaz/pseuds/naaz
Summary: Sparring and making out are the bread and butter of any action couple.





	New Rules

He falls with natural grace.

The first thing every aspiring ninja learns is how to fall. After training day in and out that lesson becomes instinct and it gives both combatants a better chance to get back up again. It’s the first sign of aptitude among academy students.

Those who can’t learn how to fall will get themselves injured, not only in live combat but in the spars that make up so much of their young education. Body awareness, an inherent sense of gravity, it parts the civilian kids (most of them) from the clan offspring immediately. No one claimed their society was fair.

Like so much his academy teachers had tried to impart on him back then, Itachi had already learned it himself, long before anyone thought to teach him.

Hands in the dirt, fingers curl into solid ground before he pushes himself back up. The tie that had bound his hair came undone and it falls freely around his long face. He’s pulling fly aways out of his mouth and staring ahead towards Shisui. So rarely does he look mad, like he’s actually trying behind that unfeeling mask of his but Shisui has his attention now.

“Good, good. Half the battle is getting back up,” Shisui says, an attempt at encouraging. He’s still limber, halfway between standing and his defensive pose.

“Right, how could I forget, sensei.”

He hasn’t. Itachi’s not even frustrated that the odds are stacked against him in a straight taijutsu fight. Shisui is taller, stronger, he’s got better stamina. Itachi is recently diagnosed with some sort of wasting illness that was still being kept from the clan. It all boiled down to Itachi’s own weakness and he was set on remedying them. if he was to achieve any of their grand ambitions of forcing their world in tumult into peace he couldn't be weaker; than Shisui, than anyone. That they were were the two prodigies of the Uchiha didn't matter either.

There were a lot of prodigies, from a lot of different clans. The Hyuuga’s most recent had just become a genin, Sasuke was shaping up to be a brilliant ninja as well.

Itachi breaths deeply and falls back into the first position of the defensive kata. He favors the style from Suna, lower impact with an emphasis on the quick motions from one position to the other.

He and Shisui play well against each other.

“Why no sharingan again?” he asks, keeping the acerbic edge from his, lips parted as he concentrates on the minute adjustments to his form. Shisui’s voice centers him both in combat and out and he’s using that look of ------ concern? to do so now.

“That was your rule Itachi. We can go back to using sharingan.”

That he would stand a better chance if they did is implied.

“I won’t improve as much,” he counters.

Shisui’s brows raise.

“Your masochistic streak is cute I’m starting to feel bad, putting you on your ass like this.”

The curve of Itachi’s lips says indulge me and just as it seems Shisui is about to call them to rest his resolve slips away, his tongue darts to the corner of his mouth and then they’re back in the fray.

Itachi narrowly avoids an elbow.

He counters. Their arms meet and Shisui breaks his hold.

He breathes hard and in the same moment Shisui advances again.

Itachi retreats, stumbles, and throws an elbow of his own.

Shisui moves with contradictions that he rolls into grace. He's hard on the strike; he's soft in the give and take of muscle. His distractions are bold and the kill is always quiet. Itachi is in love with him, has been in love with him for years but never does the feeling strike as viscerally as in the middle of a fight.

There’s so much to be admired: the set of Shisui’s brows when all play has left his expression, the tight curve of his lips as tight features pull towards a frown.

Itachi aims a knee and Shisui rebuffs him.

Shisui counters and Itachi takes the blow.

Pain, blossoming across his field of view as Shisui gets in a good jab. Itachi ignores it for fear of falling further behind but Shisui seems to hesitate.

Recovery takes a moment, Shisui should’ve attacked, they both know.

Itachi throws himself forward, his whole body in his attack.

Shisui doesn't just dodge. His body arcs backward to avoid Itachi’s swing.

There are hands on Itachi’s thigh and downward force makes him stumble. Shisui drops from view and Itachi fights the urge to let sharingan flair into life.

There's a single hard knock at the base of his skull and Itachi is sent splaying to the side, correcting his fall at the last moment. Shisui’s heel comes to rest on Itachi’s shoulder and pinned to the ground Itachi stares up behind heavy lashes. He’s bleeding. He can taste the metal tang against the inside of lips.

He huffs a distracted little breath, leaning in to nuzzle the foot that pins him.

Shisui is stronger. He knows that. His fingers go to wind around Shisui’s calf and the flicker of confusion only lasts a moment as Itachi starts to massage the muscle between deft finger tips.

“I’m mad at you.”

It’s easy enough to guess why. Shisui’s mad about his continuing to fight when his nose could very well be broken. It flies in the face of the idea of these being casual spars.

I know, Itachi’s expression says.

“New rules, we need **new** rules.”

Itachi’s eyes snap back up towards Shisui. A silent Go ahead, because he’s said all of his dozen word allotment for the day and now he’s now he’s wondering if he looks pretty like this. They’re all allowed moments of vanity, even if his own come when he’s fighting the bite of gravel against his skull, hair fanned underneath him.

“God damn it, you’re distracting me. I hope this isn’t a part of your standard battle strategy nuzzle the enemy is only an approved combat tactic if you’re a kunoichi ------”

“Shisui.”

It breaks Shisui from his rant and he pouts down at Itachi.

“What?”

“Kiss me already, or?”

The shift in positions is natural as breathing. Shisui’s hands take hold of Itachi’s wrists, sliding upwards from Itachi’s elbows and raising goose bumps on his skin. Itachi gives him a rare, lingering smile, tapered tight around the edges. Shisui’s knees fall to either side of Itachi’s stomach and the elder breaths out hard.

He kisses near Itachi’s temple first, tasting salt skin and letting their foreheads rest together. It’s too short a moment before Shisui is pulling away. It leaves the air between them warmer and there’s something sweet in the way Shisui looks at him. Itachi feels like part of him threatens to cave in then and there.

Love is a dangerous thing for two people who live their lives with the implicit understanding that death is their ultimate glory but as he grows into complicated feelings he finds it only makes it sweeter. Hands against his wrists. The heat of another body against his. For the highs to be higher, the lows must be lower as well and Shisui stretches him so thin Itachi has no doubt he’ll snap without him.

“Blood suits you,” Shisui mutters as their lips meet.

Tacky red on Itachi’s pale skin, it’s an aesthetic at least and Shisui’s tongue runs along Itachi’s upper lip, tasting. There’s blood between their lips as Shisui presses forward further and Itachi’s rejoinder is a low, hungry noise in his throat.

A mutual goal of nonviolence doesn’t mean they haven’t found the dark parts in each other’s heart and held them, still beating between their fingers.

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted [here.](http://simpletool.tumblr.com/post/160587499873/new-rules-mature-ish-shisui-itachi-blood)


End file.
